Royal Oak's founding families faced wild terrain, animals

Muriel Versagi, curator of the Royal Oak Historical Society Museum, dances to the music coming from a Victor Talking Machine that was owned by Louis Storz, a general store owner who served as mayor of Royal Oak from 1925-1930. David Dalton/Daily Tribune

ROYAL OAK — Two hundred years ago, an influx of families, mostly from western New York, headed to the Wild West that was southern Oakland County.

Cheap land beckoned at about $1.25 an acre. The price made hardships like rugged wooded terrain and wild animals worth the risk.

Elisha Bergen got 80 acres around 11 Mile Road and a deed signed by President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845). While building his home, he went to get some bread from a neighbor 1˝ miles away.

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“He was chased back home by a pack of wolves that smelled the freshly baked loaf. Life here wasn’t easy,” said Susan Wolfrum, assistant curator of the Royal Oak Historical Society Museum.

Bears, wolves, bogs, woods and bands of thieves were just some of the challenges facing the city’s earlier settlers. A new museum exhibit called Founding Families chronicles their troubles and triumphs.

By running top speed, Bergen saved the bread and himself. His granddaughter passed on the account of the man who went on to do business as a weaver of rag carpets and woolen blankets.

Wolfrum said handling the biographical information for the exhibit was an eye opener.

“I learned a lot about how people survived when Royal Oak was just mud, woods and snakes,” she said. “Most came from New York. It was kind of a dribble at first, but when the Erie Canal opened it was easier to get here to this unending supply of land.”

Settlers poured in after the canal connected the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean in 1825.

“This was the Wild West at the time,” said Muriel Versagi, museum curator. “We’ve got walls and displays devoted to 50-60 families considered pioneers, including a black man named Hamlet Harris who was a free man.”

Harris arrived with his wife, who he bought out of slavery, and their six sons in 1830. He never learned to read or write but he was widely respected for his keen memory, especially of the Bible. One of his legacies: He cut a road from his house to the Saginaw Turnpike that later came to be known as Catalpa Drive.

Children had to be wary of not only wolves but bears. Heeding parents’ advice not to run from bears worked for one little girl going to a friend’s house.

“She met a bear on the path and she ignored him,” Wolfrum said. “They crossed each other and he didn’t bother her and she didn’t bother him.”

All kinds of wild animals preyed on livestock. Members of the Fulton family took turns keeping watch after losing 20 sheep one night.

With cranberry bogs by 11 Mile and thick woods where the Ferndale city limit is, the terrain posed problems, too. Wagon drivers had to whip up their horses to cross the murk without getting stuck. Everyone picked up the pace through the woods.

“Robbers hung out by the Ferndale border so you had to move through quickly,” Wolfrum said.

The settlers made livings as farmers, blacksmiths, carpenters, coopers and cobblers. Those that stuck it out were able to subdivide their land and make money in the real estate business.

The first land plat was created in 1856 by Sherman Stephenson, who was an influence in getting the railroad through Royal Oak.

“Stephenson Highway follows the old track bed,” Wolfrum said. “It was altered when Grand trunk came through and moved it to the present location.”

Many names in the Founding Families exhibit are familiar, like Starr, Dondero, Lawson, Knowles and Reynolds. Their descendants have loaned artifacts for the exhibit, including a set of dishes given as a wedding gift to a Civil War veteran.

The contributions of other families aren’t in the spotlight too often but no doubt shaped the city that has become one of metro Detroit’s most vibrant suburbs.

“To me it shows what a solid bedrock Royal Oak is built on,” said Deb Anderson, president of the historical society. “It sounds sappy, but we have a community that started really strong. Its history but it’s really vibrant. It’s still living to me.”

The Royal Oak Historical Society Museum, 1411 W. Webster, is open 1-4 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Admission is free for members; a donation to offset heating bills is requested of other visitors.